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Summary

A curvilinear stony bank describing the west and south sides of an enclosure immediately south-west of the Cholwich Town Reave. The bank is a combination of piled boulders and orthoststs and appears to be incomplete rather than robbed on the east and north sides. There are no robber trenches or slight lynchets to indicate the former course of this feature closer to the reave and the lack of internal features or hut circle attached to the inside face of the bank tends to confirm this theory.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1017399: Cholwich Town contour reave, cairn and two enclosures
• SHINE: Cholwich Town, Penn Beacon and Shell Top Reaves. Earthworks of Bronze Age boundary works with adjacent prehistoric enclosures and hut circles, cairns and stone rows

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX56SE118
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 439441
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX56SE/278
• Old SAM Ref: 10754
• Pastscape: 439441

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ENCLOSURE (Constructed, Bronze Age - 2200 BC (Between) to 701 BC (Between))

Full description

Royal Air Force, 1946, RAF/CPE/UK/1890, Devon County Council RAF/CPE/UK/1890 2292-2293 10-DEC-1946 (Aerial Photograph). SDV169268.

An enclosure is visible as an earthwork.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1979, SX56SE118 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV176604.

(09/04/1979) SX 58686387. On a south-west facing slope at 370.0m. O.D. is the remains of a sub-oval enclosure, 63.0m. by 55.0m. lying just south and downhill from the 'Cholwich Town' reave (SX 56 SE 82).
The upper part is on the south west slope and the lower half is on a narrow flat shelf. The walling, 1.5m. wide and 0.5m. high, is mostly of piled boulders with occasional slabs forming double facing. No entrance is visible. There is no walling on the side nearest the reave for the construction of which it may have been robbed.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 on P.F.D.

Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1985, Aerial Photograph Project (Dartmoor) - Dartmoor Pre-NMP (Cartographic). SDV319854.

'Enclosure' shown on aerial photograph transcription - no reference given.

Butler, J., 1994, Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities: Volume Three - The South-West, 161-2, Map 51, Figure 51.5 (Monograph). SDV137656.

Enclosure 'D' to the west of Shell Top and to the south of the 'reave' where only the southern half survives. It would appear to have been robbed by the builders of the reave so must have been redundant by that time.

Robertson, J. G., 1994, The Archaeology of the Upper Plym Valley (Post-Graduate Thesis). SDV139549.

Enclosure depicted and described by Robertson.

Bluesky International Ltd/Getmapping PLC, 1999-2017, Pan Government Agreement Aerial Photographs, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery SX5963 03-MAY-2007 (Aerial Photograph). SDV363087.

An enclosure is visible as an earthwork.

Probert, S. A. J. + Fletcher, M. J., 2002, Plym Valley survey (Report - Survey). SDV350782.

(23/04/2002) Centred SX 58686388. A curvilinear stony bank describing the west and south sides of an enclosure immediately south-west of the Cholwich Town Reave. The bank is a combination of piled boulders and orthoststs and appears to be incomplete rather than robbed on the east and north sides. There are no robber trenches or slight lynchets to indicate the former course of this feature closer to the reave and the lack of internal features or hut circle attached to the inside face of the bank tends to confirm this theory.

English Heritage, 2005-2008, Prehistoric Survey Information (Cartographic). SDV345521.

South-western part of an enclosure shown on survey.

NERC, 2013, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) Tellus: South Devon to Dartmoor, LIDAR SX5863 Tellus DTM 01-JUL-2013 to 31-AUG-2013 (Cartographic). SDV361514.

An enclosure is identifiable as a subtle earthwork.

Bluesky International Ltd/Getmapping PLC, 2015-2017, 2015-2017 Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV361462.

South-western part of an enclosure visible on aerial photograph.

Hegarty, C., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2019-2020, The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping Survey. Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (AI&M, formerly NMP) (Interpretation). SDV362982.

A curvilinear bank is visible as an earthwork circa 2.5m wide and 120m long on aerial photographs of 1946 defining an oval enclosed area approximately 65m across on the south-west facing slopes of Lee Moor.
The bank remains visible as an earthwork on digital images derived from aerial photographs of 2002 and 2007, aligned on the south-west edge of Cholwich Town Reave North (MDV15060).
Although due to the partial nature of the enclosure bank no direct relationship is visible between the two earthworks, the alignment of the enclosure banks might support the interpretation that then enclosure was aligned upon, and therefore post-dates the Reave.
The bank is identifiable as a subtle earthwork on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2013.
No internal features were identifiable from the sources available to the survey.

Ordnance Survey, 2021, MasterMap 2021 (Cartographic). SDV364015.

'Enclosure' shown on modern mapping.

Historic England, 2021, National Heritage List for England, 1017399 (National Heritage List for England). SDV364016.

The enclosure on the south side of the reave does not have any hut circles.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8148 - The Upper Plym Valley: The Management of an Historic Landscape
• EDV8098 - The South Devon Coast to Dartmoor Aerial Investigation and Mapping (formerly NMP) Survey, Area 2, Avon Valley to Plymouth (Ref: ACD2040)
• EDV8155 - Plym Valley Survey: EH Project (Feb 2001 - Dec 2002)

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